132 THE FOSSIL HORSE OF BISHOP'S STORTFORD.
It is a remarkable fact that some of our salt-marsh and sea-
sand plants, such as the Thrift, the Scurvy-grass, and the Sea-
Campion, also occur upon high mountains far removed from the
sea, whilst others, such as the Sea-spurry (Spergularia maritima),
have very close relations which flourish in inland situations.
This suggests to us that these salt-water plants have no special
affection for sea salt. In truth, their tissues are modified to
exclude more than a limited amount of saline matter. It would
appear that they have modified their histological system and
adapted themselves to these inhospitable situations, rather than
be worried by the troublesome competition which accompanies
life in the more fertile inland soils.
Possibly the remarks I have made may draw attention to the
opportunities which the Essex sea-coast affords for scientific
investigation, both in studying the way in which these plants
sort themselves out into different zones, and in the histological
modifications which their tissues undergo to suit them for life on
the sea coast.
THE FOSSIL HORSE OF BISHOP'S STORTFORD,
WITH REMARKS ON THE FOSSIL HORSES OF EUROPE.
By E. T. NEWTON, F.R.S., F.G.S., late Palaeontologist to the Geological Survey
of Great Britain.
[Read 29th January 1910.]
IN the Standard for 17th May 1909 (page 10), there appeared
a short notice of the discovery, during some excavations at
Bishop's Stortford, of the entire skeleton of a horse, at a depth
of only 21/2 feet below the surface. A much more detailed
account was given by the Rev. Dr. A. Irving in the same news-
paper on 24th May (p. 13), and a photograph of the remains was
reproduced in the Illustrated London News of 5th June 1909.
Dr. Irving thought at first that these remains might have
belonged to the Hipparion, the three-toed horse, fragmentary
portions of which occur in the Pliocene beds of Suffolk. It was,
however, soon seen that this skeleton had not three toes to each
foot. Moreover, the grinding teeth had not the peculiar structure